When it comes to well-known tales that have been retold on the big screen over and over again, Invasion of the Body Snatchers is quickly joining the ranks of several classic monster movies and Shakespeare adaptations as one of the most frequently remade stories of all time. The original 1956 film was based on Jack Finney’s 1954 novel The Body Snatchers and since then there have been three other versions including Philip Kaufman’s 1978 version, Abel Ferrara’s Body Snatchers (1993), and Oliver Hirschbiegel’s The Invasion (2007). (That’s not even counting some of the loose riffs on the story such as The Faculty and The World’s End.) Now this week it looks like Warner Brothers are starting development on another new version just one decade after the last one flopped in theatres. Hit the jump for more details.

According to Deadline, Warner Brothers is in the process of setting up a new remake of Invasion Of The Body Snatchers. John Davis (Predator, The Man from U.N.C.L.E.) is on board as producer while David Leslie Johnson (The Conjuring 2) will write the script. No word yet on what their take on the material will be this time around, but it always seems to transfer nicely to different political climates.

David Leslie Johnson also wrote Jaume Collet-Serra’s 2009 film Orphan as well as Wrath of the Titans and several episodes of The Walking Dead. He is also currently working on a reboots of A Nightmare on Elm Street and Dungeons & Dragons, so he’s got some experience attempting to relaunch well-known properties for whatever that may be worth. No word yet on who they might be looking at for the director’s chair but I am guessing it will be a young up and coming filmmaker with a Sundance hit under his belt. Are you interested in a new version of Invasion of the Body Snatchers and who would you like to see direct?

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Lori Cerny

Yes, yes, yes!!! Each reiteration of the premise has been pretty good… I did like 2007s The Invasion – not great, but still fine. Let’s not forget to add Thing 1 (The Thing 1982) and Thing 2 (The Thing 2011) to the list.